Barbadian batsman was most prolific of the West Indies’ fearsome ‘Three Ws’
Sir Everton Weekes, who has died aged 95, was the most prolific scorer of the West Indies’ ‘‘three Ws’’. Alongside Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott, he formed perhaps the most dominating trio of batsmen ever to appear in the same test side.
Early in Weekes’ career, it seemed that his scoring feats might match even those of Sir Donald Bradman. In the English summer of 1950, he hit five hundreds, each time going on to make a double century.
He shared with Bradman the propensity not merely to master the bowling, but to destroy it. Short of stature, he excelled in whiplash cuts and fierce hooks against the faster bowlers, while he could drive with equal facility off both the front and the back foot.
If Weekes played defensively, C.L.R.
James wrote, it often seemed a last-second improvisation to a ball which he had at first meant to force away. Yet for all his unorthodoxy in attack, his defence was fundamentally correct.
In England in 1950 anything had seemed possible for Weekes. It had been the same in India in 1948-49, when he scored four successive test centuries to add to the one he had already made against England in the West Indies. Indeed, he only missed a sixth test century on the trot when he was run out for 90 in the fourth test.
But the magic faded during the West Indies’ tour of Australia in 1951-52. Weekes’ 70 in the first test was a typically stylish effort, but in the latter stages of that match he pulled a muscle when fielding in the slips, and for the rest of the series was obliged to bat with his thigh strapped and the injured muscle shot full of anaesthetic. Deprived of his nimble footwork, he only made one more half-century in the series.
There were still many great innings to come, but with the leg injury continuing to plague him it was never quite a ‘‘glad, confident morning’’ again. As early as 1954 he talked of retiring; in fact he played test cricket until 1958, bringing his total of centuries to 15 and amassing 4455 runs at an average of 58.61. Among West Indian batsmen, only George Headley has a better test average.
Everton de Courcy Weekes was born near the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, six months after the birth of Frank Worrell and 11 months before that of Clyde Walcott on the same small island. His father was a football fan (Jim Laker once remarked to Weekes: ‘‘It was a good thing your father wasn’t a West Bromwich Albion fan.’’).
Weekes first played cricket at school. He was never coached, but during the war years, when he served with the Barbados battalion of the Caribbean Regiment without seeing active service, his talents caught the eye of E.L.G. Hoad, a former West Indies test player, and he was given a job as groundsman. Walcott remembered that, when he first came across him in a trial match in 1945, Weekes was known as an off-spinner who could bat a bit. Nevertheless, the year before, Weekes, aged 18, had made his first-class debut for Barbados as an opening batsman.
In his first five test innings he got out in the 20s and 30s, and was dropped for the fourth and final test. In the event, though, George Headley couldn’t play, so Weekes was reselected. This time he scored 141.
Playing for West Indies in 1948-49 Weekes averaged 111.28 over five test matches in India. He again averaged over 100 when the Indians toured the West Indies in 1953-54, and the next year he scored 206 against England at Port of Spain. In 1954-55 he redeemed his earlier failure in Australia by making 469 runs in the home series.
But he failed against England in 1957, with the notable exception of his 90 on a dangerous wicket at Lord’s – ‘‘an innings of genius’’, Denis Compton called it. He decided, at only 32, to retire from test cricket.
He continued for a while to play for Barbados, and in 1962 he toured East Africa,
India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Rhodesia with R.A. Roberts’ multiracial side. When he shared a taxi with Neil Adcock and Roy Maclean, the driver asked if they all played for South Africa. ‘‘Man, are you colour blind?’’ Weekes replied.
He was a brilliant fielder, fleet of foot in the covers, and with exceptionally safe hands at slip, and was immensely popular wherever he went. But he lacked the instinct for leadership of Worrell, who became one of the great captains before his death in 1967, and the administrative competence of Walcott, who chaired the International Cricket Council.
Weekes, by contrast, ran a nightclub in the 1970s, and showed his brains by becoming an international bridge player, turning out for Barbados against his old cricketing foes, England, Australia and India. He swam every day until 2017, when he was advised to give it up: ‘‘The doctor thinks drowning is not a very pleasant way to go,’’ he remarked.
Everton Weekes was appointed OBE in 1960, and knighted in 1995. His son, David Murray, played 19 tests for West Indies, and his grandson, Ricky Hoyte, played for Barbados. –